Next step - consultancy?

[imightbewrong]

Hello peeps. Not visited here for a while - busy working - hope all are well. Been contracting for a year now - have ended up back where I was a permie for 4 ish years. Rate is a pretty good one. Here's the thing - whenever I go out, I meet old managers and colleagues of mine who are keen to have me work for them - it's how I got this gig - pure reputation, no interviews. I have a good rep. and some niche skills in my business area that I have picked up over time. Obviously these skills won't be niche forever. There are also some good people within and without the industry that I know and trust to do good hard work.

So I'm thinking - is it possible to cash in on my possibly-short-term fortuitous position by forming some sort of consultancy 'team', in which I can put people/myself in place at these firms (probably three plus current) with my 'name' behind them, and sell in the skill/solution I am known for? I have a pretty good IR35 friendly contract here ('no substitution unreasonably refused' or whatever) at the moment.

Has anyone ever done/considered this? There seem to be lots of things to consider (natch) - become financially intertwined with people / extracting people from possibly good jobs / how to pitch the concept (where it won't be me 5-days a week in their office).

So - any thoughts appreciated - especially to the more general question - lots of people want me to work for them - I can only work for one at a time - solution?

Cheers

[d000hg]

Through an agency, I imagine you'll find it very hard. Direct marketing to new customers, same.

But if you think you have some likely customers, the idea is sound... can you float the idea with your professional network over a pint and see what they think? You realistically only need one customer to get started, although you would be on thin ice at times.

[Green]

You have to make sure you get the right people to work for you else your repute will be tarnished and the high esteem you are held in now will suffer. Best option would be to delegate the work and closely monitor its delivery to the end-client. Else not everyone will work like you.

[jmo21]

Simple answer is, yes, contractors have done this before, so why not try it!

A 'tractor at my last place ran his own mini outsourcing company and was constantly advertising and placing people through his contacts.

I also know of a software house in my city that started as 2 contractors working for the NHS, who built up a great deal of domain knowledge, then put together a bid for a project, won it, and built their business from there.

Best of luck, I wish I was in that position!

[The Agents View]

Simple answer is, yes, contractors have done this before, so why not try it!

A 'tractor at my last place ran his own mini outsourcing company and was constantly advertising and placing people through his contacts.

I also know of a software house in my city that started as 2 contractors working for the NHS, who built up a great deal of domain knowledge, then put together a bid for a project, won it, and built their business from there.

Best of luck, I wish I was in that position!

Shameless plug:

If you need any help on the finance side of things (payrolling, factoring etc) then drop me a PM - it's amazing what you can do working for a big corporate to help situations like this.

[imightbewrong]

Thanks guys - some good comments there. I think my next step will be the drinks suggestion - I know a couple of tame Directors, one of whom is interested in me right now, and one who has been around the block and given me heaps of good advice in the past. If it gets past them, it might be a goer

[d000hg]

Your path is basically what I am doing, I'm a step further along inbetween contracting and having a fully-fledged software company. What do you do?